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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Surname Saturday - Hablawetz

William Hablawetz and hisdaughter, Mary
(date unknown)

Not very long ago, I would have told you that the Hablawetz surname is my biggest brick wall (yes, the surname as a whole, not just one person) because I just couldn't seem to find a lot of information on the family. Now...now researching this surname has become a bit more like playing hide and seek.

Origins: The family appears to have originated in Austria or Germany, and first settled in the United States in Plymouth Township in Richland County, Ohio. From there, my line of the family moved to Wilmington Township in DeKalb County, Indiana. I have been able to trace some of the family up to Michigan and it appears that there were other lines of the family that moved further west, but I have not been able to make a definite connection between those lines and mine.

Notable Facts: My great great grandfather, Anton Hablawetz, built one of the many one room school houses that served DeKalb County through the late 1800s and into the 1900s. It stood until the 1990s.

Challenge: As you can see from the variations in the surname, my biggest challenge with this family has been to find the variations of the name! Once I began to realize that there were so many odd variations on the name, I started finding little trails to follow, but I still have not jumped that hurdle of finding any definitive immigration information for the family.